After sensing possible signs of recovery, Jingtian & Gongcheng has strengthened its partner ranks with 17 promotions in its Beijing and Shanghai offices.

Jingtian & Gongcheng has a two-tier partnership structure. Eleven senior associates, all based in Beijing, have been made up to the firm's second tier of partnership, while six junior partners, two of whom are Shanghai-based, have been admitted to its equity partnership.

Senior partner Zhang Hongjiu (pictured) said that one of the drivers for this round of promotions was to facilitate the development of its Shanghai and Shenzhen branches, with Shanghai gaining two equity partners and some of the new Beijing partners to be relocated to Shenzhen.

A more important reason behind the promotions thought, said Zhang, was to retain talented lawyers and ensure there are enough resources to handle the work load when demand picks up again.

"We are starting to see signs of recovery in transactional activity from the end of April and partners are starting to be busy again. We believe the economic recovery is not too far away," said Zhang. "So we need to ensure we keep talented lawyers for growth in the near future, and the best way to retain them is to offer them good chances for partnership and let them know that partnership is an achievable goal."

The firm claimed four deal awards in ALB China Law Awards 2009 and it recently acted for the underwriters in China Zhongwang's US$1.2bn IPO in Hong Kong, the first billion-dollar IPO worldwide this year.

The newly promoted equity partners are Chen Yimin and Chen Jiaze in Shanghai, and Fu Siqi, Lang Yuanpeng, Xu Bangwei and Xie Peng in Beijing. The new junior partners are Beijing-based Li Xueyu, Zhu Yanping, He Qingyu, Guo Yanjun, Xu Pengfei, Gao Yuan, Zeng Yan, Han Linyou, Wang Bo, Ren Wei and Yao Xiaohui.

In addition, the firm hired former counsel with King & Wood, Si Xiaotan, as an equity partner in Beijing earlier this year. The firm currently has 50 partners, including both second-tier and equity partners.